PRO14 Players of the Day

November 02, 2018
1916
Ultimate Rugby

Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh both claimed bonus points win in Friday's round 8 action in the PRO14.

Here are Top Performers from the two encounters:

Nikola Matawalu - Glasgow Warriors

Named on the bench for the clash, Matawalu made an immediate impact after coming onto the pitch just 4 minutes into the game.

He grabbed his first try in the 11th minute thanks to a fantastic offload by DTH van der Merwe and finished off a great attack follow Nick Grigg's break moments later.

He completed his hattrick before the hour mark when he read Thomson's cross kick perfectly to score.

🏉| I need whatever luck @NMatawalu has...

He gets the luck of the bounce here to get his hattrick!

OSP 13-22 GLA#GuinnessPRO14 pic.twitter.com/HtakpYBcwg

— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) November 2, 2018

Nick Grigg - Glasgow Warriors

A man of the match performance that will certainly catch the eye of Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend.

Grigg was aggressive with his carries, ran superb lines and carved open the Ospreys defence with relative ease.

He assisted a try, scored one for himself and was involved in everything good Glasgow did.

Hanno Dirksen - Ospreys

An outstanding performance by the Ospreys' flyer racking up 156 running metres - a good 60 metres than any other player in the PRO14 tonight.

He looked dangerous throughout the game beating 8 defenders and was finally rewarded for his efforts with a kind bounce of the ball leading to his try in the 74th minute.

📊| Top stat performer from #OSPvGLA was Hanno Dirksen, despite being on the losing side 🔥

More #PRO14 stats 👉 https://t.co/gffojcjy2w pic.twitter.com/lDy3Xxe7ur
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) November 2, 2018

Viliame Mata - Edinburgh

Another massive performance by the powerful no.8.

He made 24 carries in his 79 minutes out on the pitch making a game high of 84 running metres.

He broke off the back of an Edinburgh maul to score the opening try of the game and dived over for his second to secure the bonus point win the 77th minute.

Tom Brown - Ospreys

Two tries on his return to the Edinburgh starting XV for the pacey winger.

He finished off a superb team try in the 22nd minute and doubled up just 5 minutes later thanks to a great pass by Henry Pyrgos.

He chased and contested kicks well and was solid in defence.

Johnny McNicholl - Scarlets

McNicholl showed off his deadly step to score in the 49th minute and looked dangerous throughout the game.

He beat 5 defenders and made 42 running metres but it was not enough to guide his side to victory.

Pierre Schoeman - Edinburgh

A dominant day at scrum time for the big South African as he caused a number of headaches for his fellow countryman Werner Kruger.

The former Bull made 14 carries, 9 tackles and dived over for his second meat pie for Edinburgh.